The Ultimate Collector

Ms. Lattimer [daughter of deceased collector John Lattimer, a prominent urologist at Columbia University] will also hold on to a box said to hold Napoleon's penis.
Photo: Edward Keating/The New York Times

NYTimes: In a Father’s Clutter, Historic Oddities

Paris Hilton Responds

John McCain's recent television ad compared Barack Obama to Paris Hilton, as an empty-headed celebrity. This must have made Ms. Hilton mad, so even though her parents are McCain contributors and McCain supports eliminating the estate tax so she can keep all her family's money, she made this ad mocking the Senator:

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

I saw this on HuffPo: Hilt-Owned -- Paris Responds to McCain's Ad

In less than two minutes, she accomplished not one -- but FIVE things McCain himself has been unable to do in two years of campaigning:

1) Come off as intelligent and self-effacing.

2) Present a well-reasoned energy policy.

3) Generate excitement on the internet.

4) Win over a new block of supporters.

5) Say the word "Hilton" without the preface "Hanoi."

Billionaires for Bush

Estate tax statistics from an article by Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone (on the net on Alternet) on how Bush's budget compares to the estate tax cuts he wants to make permanent. (hat tip to Digby of Hullabaloo)

If the Estate Tax were to be repealed completely, the estimated savings to just one family -- the Walton family, the heirs to the Wal-Mart fortune -- would be about $32.7 billion dollars over the next ten years.

The proposed reductions to Medicaid over the same time frame? $28 billion.

Or how about this: if the Estate Tax goes, the heirs to the Mars candy corporation -- some of the world's evilest scumbags, incidentally, routinely ripped by human rights organizations for trafficking in child labor to work cocoa farms in places like Cote D'Ivoire -- if the estate tax goes, those assholes will receive about $11.7 billion in tax breaks. That's more than three times the amount Bush wants to cut from the VA budget ($3.4 billion) over the same time period.

Some other notable estimate estate tax breaks, versus corresponding cuts:

* Cox family (Cox cable TV) receives $9.7 billion tax break while education would get $1.5 billion in cuts

* Nordstrom family (Nordstrom dept. stores) receives $826.5 million tax break while Community Service Block Grants would be eliminated, a $630 million cut

* Ernest Gallo family (shitty wines) receives a $468.4 million cut while LIHEAP (heating oil to poor) would get a $420 million cut

And so on and so on. Sanders additionally pointed out that the family of former Exxon/Mobil CEO Lee Raymond, who received a $400 million retirement package, would receive about $164 million in tax breaks.

Compare that to the Commodity Supplemental Food Program, which Bush proposes be completely eliminated, at a savings of $108 million over ten years. The program sent one bag of groceries per month to 480,000 seniors, mothers and newborn children.

And think about how much money the government would have to spend on veteran's benefits if we weren't giving the heirs of Sam Walton billions of dollars.

Will Congress Give Paris Hilton A Tax Break?

Congress poised to give her millions
Our economy is in a tailspin, the Iraq war is pouring money into the hands of private contractors and draining the treasury. What do Republicans want? Give the mega-rich another tax cut! Only makes sense if you are rich -- like the Bush Administration members who stand to save millions.

Paul Krugman, NYTimes: Shameless in the Senate

The Senate almost voted to repeal the estate tax last fall, but Republican leaders postponed the vote after Hurricane Katrina. It's easy to see why: the public might have made the connection between scenes of Americans abandoned in the Superdome and scenes of well-heeled senators voting huge tax breaks for their even wealthier campaign contributors.

But memories of Katrina have faded, and they're about to try again. The Senate will probably vote this week. So it's important to realize that there's still a clear connection between tax breaks for the rich and failure to help Americans in need.

Any senator who votes to repeal the estate tax, or votes for a "compromise" that goes most of the way toward repeal, is in effect saying that increasing the wealth of people who are already in line to inherit millions or tens of millions is more important than taking care of fellow citizens who need a helping hand.

[]

Who would benefit from this largess? The estate tax is overwhelmingly a tax on the very, very wealthy; only about one estate in 200 pays any tax at all. The campaign for estate tax repeal has largely been financed by just 18 powerful business dynasties, including the family that owns Wal-Mart.

[]

In the interest of stiffening those spines, let me remind senators that this isn't just a fiscal issue, it's also a moral issue. Congress has already declared that the budget deficit is serious enough to warrant depriving children of health care; how can it now say that it's worth enlarging the deficit to give Paris Hilton a tax break?

Full article: Ed Strong.

Sebastian Mallaby, WaPo: Reward for the Hereditary Elite . . .

It doesn't matter if you are liberal or conservative, Democrat or Republican. There is no possible excuse for doing what Congress is poised to do this week: Abolish the estate tax.

The federal government faces a future of expanding deficits. Thanks to the baby bust and medical inflation, spending is projected to rise by nearly 3 percent of gross domestic product by 2030, a growth equivalent to the doubling of today's Medicare program. What is the dumbest possible response to this? Take a source of revenue and abolish it outright.

fuzzy and blue: EstateTaxRepeal: GOP prays at lucre alter

[] Estate tax repeal would save the estate of Cheney between $13 to $61 million, according to the publicly available data on his net worth. It would save the estate of Rumsfeld between $32 to $101 million. The estate of retired Exxon Mobil chairman Lee Raymond would pocket a cozy $164 million. As for the late Sam Walton's kids, whose company already makes taxpayers foot the bill for the medical expenses of 1000s of its employees, the cost to the govt for not taxing their estates would run into the multiple billions. []

Bush to Cut Social Security Disability Benefits to Give Taxcuts to Billionaires

From The New Standard, via truthout.org:

Feds Could "Gut" Social Security Disability Rolls

The Social Security Administration (SSA) rule-change proposal, published in the Federal Register last November, would make several different categories of people qualifying for disability benefits wait two more years for payments to start. Because Medicare and Medicaid eligibility are based on Social Security qualifications, individuals would have to postpone receipt of those healthcare benefits too.

[]

The agency also estimated that the rule change would save the federal government $5.8 billion dollars over the next ten years, leading some groups to believe the motivation behind the rule change is monetary. In its public comments to the SSA, Philadelphia's Community Legal Services, an organization providing representation to low-income people, accused the agency of trying to save federal spending "by defining disability in an even more restrictive manner than currently."

$5.8 billion dollars is less than 10% of the $71.6 billion dollars the Bush Administration wants to give the 18 richest families in America by eliminating the estate tax. More draconian social service cuts to come, most like these in the dead of night, by regulation or something slipped into an omnibus bill.

I saw this at Suburban Guerrilla.

18 Super-Rich Families Have Spent $490.3 Million Dollars Lobbying for Estate Tax Repeal

Public Citizen and United for a Fair Economy have released a report documenting how the super-rich have spent millions -- to safeguard their billions from the estate tax (The Paris Hilton tax, I should say).

Here's a link to the report, a PDF file:

Spending Millions to Save Billions
The Campaign of the Super Wealthy to Kill the Estate Tax

These are the 18 families:

Allyn-Soderberg (Allyn Family Real Estate Company)

Blethen Family (Seattle Times Co.)

Cox Family (Cox Enterprises Inc.)

DeVos Family (Alticor Inc., Amway)

Dorrance Family (Campbell Soup Co.)iony $429.4 million$1.7 billionx $663.4 million

Gallo Family (E&J Gallo Winery)

Harbert Family (Investments)

Johnson Family (BET, RLJ Development Co.)

Koch Family (Koch Industries)

Mars Family (Mars Inc.)

Mayer Family (Captiva Resources)

Nordstrom Family (Nordstrom Inc.)

Sobrato Family (Sobrato Development)

Stephens Family (Stephens Inc.)

Timken Family (The Timken Co.)

Walton Family (Wal-Mart)

Wegman Family (Wegmans Food Markets, Inc.)

Remember those names when you hear politicians talking about family farms. It's a public relations strategy by these super-rich families to make the issue about the mythical family farm. It's really the billionaire family bank account, and the billionaires huge portfolios of inherited stocks, bonds, and property, but you'll never see the CEO of Wal-Mart in any estate tax repeal ad.

Together these super-rich families stand to save $71.6 billion dollars from the estate tax repeal. No wonder they have been willing to contribute almost half a billion dollars in lobbying dollars. They've formed their own 501(c) corporations with innocuous sounding names like "Freedom Works" and the "Free Enterprise Fund" to lobby for these huge tax breaks.

And remember that most of the money in the hands of these super-rich people has never been taxed. Remember that when you're paying 25 or 30 or 35 percent of your earned income every year in taxes.

The reality is that the bulk of wealth in large taxable estates has never been taxed at all. This is wealth in the form of appreciated property, stocks, and bonds that have increased in value since they were acquired or inherited -- and have never been taxed. Without an estate tax, billions of dollars of untaxed capital gains would pass within wealthy families without any tax. (Report, page 41.)

I saw this at ThinkProgress:

18 Families Bankroll Estate Tax Repeal Campaign

Blog RoundUp

When you looked at "Planet of the Apes" the movie on WalMart's website, they also recommended movies about blacks. Story broken by firedoglake, , here, and here, also Crooks and Liars, Steve Gilliard, Washington Post. Turns out their website also linked Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Power Puff Girls, Polar Express, and Home Alone to African-American-themed DVDs. As a result, Wal-Mart Halts Movie Suggestions on Web

Glenn Greenwald, guestblogging for Digby, good post on the culture of criminality in the Bush Administration: An ideology of lawlessness

Tbogg on Operation Photo Op, Oval Office edition, 1.0: My Big Fat Publicity Stunt

Paul Cummins on HuffPost: The Emerging Bush Legacy

1. Tax cuts leading to massive, unprecedented deficits
2. Preemptive wars against non-aggressive nations
3. Sanctioning of torture
4. De-regulation of environment protections
5. Weakening of the separation of church and state
6. Exempting the gun industry from lawsuits
7. Weakening of individual privacy protections
8. Rejection of international organizations - U.N., World Court, etc.
9. Increased hatred of the U.S.A. in Islamic countries
10. Increase in terrorist attacks since 9/11
11. Neglect of poverty in the U.S.A. and abroad
12. Shifting the tax burden from wealthy corporations and individuals to wage earners
13. Reducing (hoping to abolish) estate taxes thus creating "a permanent aristocracy" in America
14. Furthering anti-intellectualism - a president who admittedly does not read and is embarrassingly inarticulate
15. Increased military spending; hostility to spending for social services
16. Increased number of Americans without health care
17. Rejection of minimum wage increases - five consecutive years
18. Applying the principle of awarding lucrative contracts to crony companies without competitive bidding
19. Attempts to privatize Social Security
20. Four consecutive years of increases in the percentage of Americans living in poverty

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R - Al.) Is Looking for a Few Rich Corpses

So he can save the estate tax repeal! You cannot make this sh*t up.

From Suburban Guerrilla:

Cockroaches

They really are an inspiration, aren’t they? No matter what lemons life hands them, Republicans manage to make lemonade:

Federal troops aren’t the only ones looking for bodies on the Gulf Coast. On Sept. 9, Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions called his old law professor Harold Apolinsky, co-author of Sessions’ legislation repealing the federal estate tax, which was encountering sudden resistance on the Hill. Sessions had an idea to revitalize their cause, which he left on Apolinsky’s voice mail: “[Arizona Sen.] Jon Kyl and I were talking about the estate tax. If we knew anybody that owned a business that lost life in the storm, that would be something we could push back with.”

If legislative ambulance chasing looks like a desperate measure, for the backers of repealing the estate tax, these are desperate times. Just three weeks ago, their long-sought goal of repeal seemed within reach, but Katrina dashed their hopes when Republican leaders put off an expected vote. After hearing from Sessions, Apolinsky, an estate tax lawyer who says his firm includes three multi-billionaires among its clients, mobilized the American Family Business Institute, a Washington-based group devoted to estate tax repeal. They reached out to members along the Gulf Coast to hunt for the dead.

It’s been hard. Only a tiny percentage of people are affected by the estate tax—in 2001 only 534 Alabamans were subject to it. And for Hill backers of repeal, that’s only part of the problem. Last year, the tax brought in $24.8 billion to the federal government. With Katrina’s cost soaring, estate tax opponents need to find a way to make up the potential lost income. For now, getting repeal back on the agenda may depend on Apolinsky and his team of estate-sniffing sleuths, who are searching Internet obituaries among other places. Has he found any victims of both the hurricane and the estate tax? “Not yet,” Apolinsky says. “But I’m still looking.”

From the Wall Street Journal: What This "Reconstruction" Is Really About

Hullaboo (Digby) publishes an article from yesterday's Wall Street Journal that lays out why the Republicans are willing to spend so much money in the Gulf states. They get to do their pet conservative projects, and skim like crazy off that $200 billion!

Boondoggle Part Deux

(The WSJ article) Some new measures are already taking shape. In the past week, the Bush administration has suspended some union-friendly rules that require federal contractors pay prevailing wages, moved to ease tariffs on Canadian lumber, and allowed more foreign sugar imports to calm rising sugar prices. Just yesterday, it waived some affirmative-action rules for employers with federal contracts in the Gulf region.

Now, Republicans are working on legislation that would limit victims' right to sue, offer vouchers for displaced school children, lift some environment restrictions on new refineries and create tax-advantaged enterprise zones to maximize private-sector participation in recovery and reconstruction. Yesterday, the House overwhelmingly passed a bill that would offer sweeping protection against lawsuits to any person or organization that helps Katrina victims without compensation.....

Many of the ideas under consideration have been pushed by the 40-member study group, which is circulating a list of "free-market solutions," including proposals to eliminate regulatory barriers to awarding federal funds to religious groups housing hurricane victims, waiving the estate tax for deaths in the storm-affected states; and making the entire region a "flat-tax free-enterprise zone."

[Digby]....[T]here is no relationship between what the Republicans say and what they do.

The model we should look at is the Coalition Provisional Government in Iraq. That too was going to be a bold and courageous experiment in laissez-faire wet-dream governance. Instead it was the biggest boondoggle in history with more than 8.8 billion dollars officially unaccounted for and undoubtedly tens of billions more wasted on fraud and corruption. Bush's base, by which I mean corporate America, did very, very well. They will undoubtedly do well in Boondoggle Part Two as well.

I cannot believe that any liberal in the country would take George W Bush's word about anything at this point, but apparently we all haven't learned our lesson yet. I'm not sure what it will take, to tell you the truth. But for those of you who believe he has somehow capitulated to liberal ideals, I would like to introduce you to a friend of mine from an African nation whose funds have been frozen ....

Throw Money at Halliburton

Thrown money at Halliburton seems to be the Bush Administration's answer to every question. Tonight Bush is going to announce a $200 billion program to rebuild the Gulf Coast. Well, duh, we need to rebuild, but between the tax cuts for millionaires, the repeal of the estate tax on multi-millionaires, the war in Iraq, the insane energy bill, where will the money come from?

Well, Bush has run every other organization he's been associated with into the ground, why am I surprised.

Bush to Request More Aid Funding
Analysts Warn of Spending's Impact

Go read TomDispatch on how Bush is turning New Orleans into the New Iraq:

Tomgram: The Reconstruction of New Oraq
Corporations of the Whirlwind
The Reconstruction of New Oraq

Howard Dean, a Real Leader

I received the following email from Howard Dean last night (I'm on the national Democratic Party email list, as I am a congenital Democrat. I'm also on the Republican Party email list, just so I can see how the re-thugs address their constituencies.) The Democrats are cancelling all fundraising events, cancelling their fall meeting, released DNC staff to participate in relief operations, and urging people to open their home to flood victims.

As reported here earlier, the Republicans intend to respond to the disaster by eliminating the estate tax and cutting Medicaid.

By giving us the "Dean Scream" (as well as "Swift Boating", and other atrocities) the media also gave us the Hurricane Katrina disaster. Can you imagine Howard Dean staying on vacation during a Category 5 hurricane? I can't even imagine Howard Dean on vacation, to be honest. He's a bulldog, and I say that with great admiration.

The Deaniacs were right. Send Bush back to Crawford. Impeach the incompetent b@st@rd.

Dear [truth],

In the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, you mobilized to make sure that the Red Cross had the financial resources it needed to respond swiftly. The response was literally overwhelming -- so many donations poured in that their web site struggled to process them.

Since then Americans have seen another kind of disaster unfold. The irresponsible lack of attention by our federal government has led directly to the devastation of communities and the loss of American lives.

The federal response over these crucial first days has been totally unacceptable. There will be a time for a full accounting of the preventable part of this disaster, and those responsible will be held accountable. It will be soon.

But there are lives to save right now and our focus must be steady. People need help right now. And you can be a direct participant in the relief efforts by providing housing for a victim of the disaster.

The vast number of evacuees has triggered a cascading crisis -- the first group of evacuation centers in the Gulf States has been overwhelmed, and the surrounding states have seen their capacity exceeded as well.

Hundreds of thousands of survivors are being transported in small groups to cities and towns across the country. A coalition of groups has put together a web site to collect offers of housing and provide a place for victims to search for help. You can offer shelter -- whether for a few days or a few weeks -- by signing up here:

http://www.hurricanehousing.org

To support your volunteer housing operation the following steps have been taken:

We are briefing Democratic elected officials on the HurricaneHousing.org program and asking that they treat this as the front-line network of volunteers who are ready and waiting to provide shelter in their jurisdiction.
We have asked outside organizations to direct their members to HurricaneHousing.org to volunteer; those organizations with representatives on the ground have been asked to help victims connect with the housing bank.
We have directed the staff at Democratic Headquarters in Washington to use local volunteers signed up on HurricaneHousing.org as they work with DC emergency response officials to assist hundreds of survivors being transported to the DC Armory, which is located nearby.
In addition to mobilizing our infrastructure to support the housing drive, we have also taken the following steps in the last week:

All DNC fundraising events have been cancelled until further notice and donations are being directed to relief organizations.
The DNC Fall Meeting that had been scheduled to take place this week has been postponed.
All staff have been given leave to participate in relief operations (many are completing Red Cross training this week and will deploy shortly).
The Democratic leadership in Congress has proposed a comprehensive policy package to ensure that victims receive health care, financial assistance and educational and employment opportunities during the crisis (go to www.democrats.org/reliefplan for more). But more than anything our organization has done, the thousands of acts of compassion by ordinary citizens and a renewed sense of common purpose will be the legacy of this effort.

Our American community will emerge stronger from this crisis.

Thank you for doing what you can.

Governor Howard Dean, M.D.

P.S. -- A number of organizations on the ground still need financial support. You can learn about them here:

http://www.democrats.org/reliefgroups

Paid for and authorized by the Democratic National Committee, www.democrats.org. This communication is not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.


Contributions or gifts to the Democratic National Committee are not deductible as charitable contributions for federal income tax purposes.

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DNC, 430 S. Capitol St. SE, Washington DC 20003

Republicans National Disaster Plan: Repeal the Estate Tax and Cut Medicaid

Because we need fewer resources in times of national crisis.

My dad, the original congenital Democrat, was fond of this quote:

In this world of sin and sorrow there is always something to be thankful for; as for me, I rejoice that I am not a Republican.
H. L. Mencken

Because Republicans do and say things like this:

Priorities Posted by Matthew Yglesias Sept. 2, 2005

Yes it's despicable that faced with utter disaster George W. Bush's first impulse was to stay on vacation. But compare that to Pete Domenici who worries that with all this death and destruction it'll be hard to eliminate health care for poor people:

"This is a serious matter that calls into question all sorts of things," said Steve Bell, chief of staff to Sen. Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.), chairman of a subcommittee that will handle much of the relief funding. "Do you think we're going to be able to pass substantial Medicaid cuts and Social Security reform in the middle of this? You can't put that much on the plate."

Poor baby. Bill Frist assures us later in the same article that estate tax repeal is still on the agenda. After all, it's not like anyone's foreseeing the need for spending on foreign wars or domestic disaster relief or anything like that in the near future.

Despite Katrina, Frist Will Call Vote on Estate Tax Repeal

Senate Finance Committee members were informed this morning that Sen. Bill Frist will move forward with a vote to permanently repeal the estate tax next week, likely on Tuesday, ThinkProgress has learned.

One stands in awe of Sen. Frist’s timing. Permanently repealing the estate tax would be a major blow to the nation’s charities. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has “found that the estate tax encourages wealthy individuals to donate considerably more to charity, since estate tax liability is reduced through donations made both during life and at death.” If there were no estate tax in 2000, for example, “charitable donations would have been between $13 billion to $25 billion lower than they actually were.”

As they did after 9/11 and during the lead-up to the Iraq war, conservatives have placed tax cuts for the most wealthy and well-off over the spirit of shared national sacrifice. What a stark contrast to the outpouring of generosity being shown by the American people in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

David Brooks is Writing , He Must Be Lying

From today's New York Times:

Calling Democrats' Bluff

Democrats have been hectoring President Bush in the manner of an overripe Fourth of July orator. The president should be summoning us to make shared sacrifices for the common good. The president should care for the poor, and stop favoring the rich. He should make the hard choices and impose a little fiscal discipline on government.

**********

Over the past few weeks, the president has called their bluff. By embracing the progressive indexing of Social Security benefits, the president has asked us to make a shared sacrifice for the common good. He's asking middle- and upper-class folks to accept benefit cuts so there will be money for the people who are really facing poverty.

He has asked us to redistribute money down the income scale. Why should programs for children and families be strangled so Donald Trump can get bigger benefit checks?

He has made the hard choices. By facing up to the fact that there are going to be benefit cuts, he's offended Newt Gingrich, Jack Kemp, the supply siders and other important Republican constituencies.

This column is so full of lies and false assumptions it's hard to know where to begin. Like, since when are Newt Gingrich & Jack Kemp important Republican constituencies? Is it 1994 or am I am in a time warp? David Brooks is such a tool. He's a fine inheritor of the legacy of William Safire, the former biggest liar on the New York Times editorial page.

Other lies: Bush has made the hard choices. No he hasn't! He has no plan. He's wildly floating ideas now that he sees his initial idea for destroying Social Security has tanked. But that's still his goal. Progressive indexing is just a more upfront way of destroying Social Security. Let's lower benefits for most of the people who pay into the system! Nothing will be more effective in lowering popular support for the system than making it all a big welfare program. (Oh, and Republicans love welfare programs, right? NOT.) Most people hate paying taxes. Are they going to feel better about paying social security tax knowing they will have to be abjectly poor to collect? Of course not.

Now, remember that less than a month ago, the Republicans abolished the inheritance tax. Didn't affect one single middle-class person, as the ONLY estates taxed were those over one million dollars in value. (Legal note: Since most married people hold their houses in joint tenancy, the house is NOT part of the estate. It passes directly to the joint tenant when the other joint tenant dies. So, we are talking about one millions dollars in other assets! Not exactly a middle class issue.)

This progressive indexing idea will cut benefits to almost every middle class working person who pays into the system. So who does David Brooks use as an example of who will be affected? Donald Trump. What does Donald Trump care about a measly $1000 a month when he gets to pass his millions on to his heirs while avoiding millions in inheritance tax?

I can't believe the New York Times pays Brooks to write this horseshit.

Dailykos has a similar take: Stop The Presses, Brooks Lies Again

He's a 19th Century Bush

Not a 20th Century Fox, our Bush.

Via uggabugga:

He's against anti-trust laws, progressive taxation, the direct election of senators, the estate tax, the regulation of energy, the regulation of the public airwaves, regulating the securities market, social security, bipartisan foreign policy, the separation of church & state, the right to policy, and abortion rights.

Defend America. Defeat Bush.